I was going through my folder on food pics and found a folder full of pics from vegetable gardens, pics of spices and condiments and market places. I thought of deleting them at first but then wondered why I ever clicked them in the first place. That's when I realized maybe these pics could perhaps be categorized under a section labelled spices and kitchen garden or exotic fruits and veggies. Some of these pics were interesting discoveries to me, some other treasures that I cherish while some of them are exotic, indigenous stuff my mom or I grew, collect and which many people haven't heard or seen. So they are definitely informative to many and nostalgic to me. I have never been passionate about gardening but recently I have began to plant spices and herbs that I think could be useful to my kitchen so my tresure hunt for rare spices led me to these chillies from the North east. A friend of my hubby's was visiting Manipur and we asked him to get these dried and fresh chillies of Bhoot Jhalokia.
Bhoot Jhalokia also known as ghost chilli pepper was ranked the spiciest chilli from 2007 to 2013 only to be replaced by Trindad Moruga Scorpion in 2012 and Carolina Reaper in 2013. Nevertheless it is the spiciest chilli in India and that fascinated me to have it in my collection. These chillies are smoky and I just tried one dry chill in a chutney and it burnt my throat and I had severe gastritis for a day. But I have been off spices in my pregnancy so maybe I have zero tolerance to spices these days, my family tells me they found it spicy too but not to the degree I described. Wikipedia describes this chilli 401.5 times hotter than tabasco sauce but I never found tabasco spicy in the first place but still I can imagine the intensity from the stats.
Now is this a must in the kitchen? If you are adventurous with food and spices is your thing, go ahead and try this but otherwise they make good agents for pepper spray which seems to be an inevitable accessory looking at the rape stats in this country.The Indian defence scientists are hoping to develop grenades using these chillies to use them in a non lethal way for combat.
The good news is it can be grown in Bangalore and I have seeds as well as saplings. Those interested can feel free to contact me. So stay tuned for more info in this section on the blog. I have some exciting market reviews and kitchen garden pics coming up.